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Superman Returns
Superman Returns is a semi-reboot of the Superman series. It takes the place of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The film uses Superman: The Movie and Superman II as a vague history. In the film, Superman has returned after being gone for five years, and tries to restore his relationship with Lois Lane and stop Lex Luthor from destroying America with The Fortress of Solitude's Crystals. Plot Opening titles reveal Superman has been missing for five years after astronomers discovered the remains of Krypton. He returns to Earth with his spacecraft crashing back into his adoptive mother's crop field, and awakes the next morning reminiscing of his childhood. He returns to work as Clark Kent at The Daily Planet in Metropolis, where he learns Lois Lane is now a mother and has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article Why the World Doesn't Need Superman. During Superman's absence, Lex Luthor has been released from prison, conned a rich widow into a sham wedding to get his hands on her money, and stolen Kryptonian crystals from the Fortress of Solitude. Luthor returns to Metropolis and experiments with a tiny fragment in a pool which grows to immense size. The growing crystal causes a blackout, affecting the take off of a space shuttle-like vehicle tethered to a Boeing 777, which Lois Lane is aboard, covering the story. Clark flies into action as Superman and stops the plane from crashing into a baseball field. The world rejoices in Superman's return, but Lois is more concerned with the blackout. Clark meets her fiancé Richard White, nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and their son Jason. Superman is hurt when he overhears a conversation between Lois and Richard in which she says she never loved Superman. He buries himself in his work, including halting a bank heist and saving Kitty, Luthor's co-conspirator. While Kitty distracts Superman, Luthor steals Kryptonite from a museum. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman whilst Clark investigates the blackout. At night, Lois goes out for a smoke on top of the The Daily Planet and Superman takes her for a flight, during which he apologizes for leaving her. After her latest Superman interview, Lois focuses her attention on the blackout again and learns where it started. Lois and Jason sneak onto Luthor's ship, not realizing who owns it, and are captured. Luthor reveals his grand scheme: using one of the stolen Kryptonian crystals to grow a new landmass, even though he is aware it will destroy already existing continents and kill billions. He also inquires as to who is the father of Jason after noticing Lois' reaction to the kryptonite being near her son. Luthor launches the crystal (now encased in kryptonite) into the sea, causing a chain reaction resulting in its massive growth. Lois faxes their co-ordinates to The Daily Planet and is attacked by a henchman. Jason throws a piano at him in an apparent display of super strength, and after hearing news of the incident, Luthor imprisons them in a galley as he escapes in a helicopter. The landmass' growth causes destruction in Metropolis which Superman attends to, and Richard arrives in a sea plane to rescue Lois and Jason from the ship, which splits in half and sinks with them trapped inside. Superman rescues them and he flies off to find Luthor, who has returned to the landmass. Meeting Luthor, Superman discovers the landmass is filled with kryptonite, which allows Luthor and his henchmen to beat and torture him. Luthor stabs Superman with a shard of kryptonite, after which he falls into the ocean. Lois makes Richard turn back to rescue Superman, and she removes the kryptonite shard from his back. Superman regains consciousness, gathers more energy from the Sun, and lifts the landmass into the atmosphere. Luthor and Kitty escape in their helicopter, but not before Kitty tosses the crystals; she and Luthor are stranded on a desert island some time later. Superman throws the landmass into space, but weakened by the kryptonite, crash lands back to Metropolis. The doctors cannot penetrate his body with their medical equipment, but manage to remove the rest of the kryptonite from his wound. While Superman remains in a coma, Lois and Jason visit Superman at the hospital, where, careful not to let Jason overhear, Lois whispers a secret in Superman's ear. Superman later awakens and flies to see Jason, reciting his father's last speech to him as he sleeps. Lois also starts writing Why the World Needs Superman. Cast *Brandon Routh as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman **Stephan Bender as 15 year old Clark Kent *Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor *Marlon Brando as Jor-El (archive footage) *Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent *Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane *Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen *Frank Langella as Perry White *James Marsden as Richard White *Tristan Lake Leabu as Jason White *Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski *Noel Neill as Gertrude Vanderworth *Kal Penn as Stanford Production History Director and producer Bryan Singer conceived the storyline of "Superman returning to Earth after a five year absence" during the filming of X-Men 2 (2003). He presented the idea to Lauren Shuler Donner and her husband Richard Donner, director of Superman: The Movie (1978). Donner greeted Singer's idea with positive feedback.[7] In March 2004, Warner Bros. was commencing pre-production on Superman: Flyby, which had a target theatrical release date of June 2006. McG was signed to direct with a script by J. J. Abrams, but dropped out in June 2004. That same month, Singer was approached by Warner Bros. to pitch his idea for Superman Returns, as Singer he was preparing to leave for Hawaii on a short vacation with his writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris. While in Hawaii, Singer, Dougherty and Harris began to outline the film treatment.[13] In July 2004, Singer signed on to direct and develop Superman Returns.[16] Although he was not a comic book fan, Singer was most impressed with Donner's 1978 film, citing it as an influence of his, Dougherty's and Harris's writing.[16][17] Superman Returns reboots the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_%28film_series%29 Superman film series], but is also a continuation of Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980).[18] With Singer's hiring, he dropped out of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and also had the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run#Remake Logan's Run remake] pushed back.[16] Superman Returns was financed 50/50 between Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures,[19] and pre-production began in November 2004.[20] By February 2005, Dougherty and Harris had written six drafts of the script.[21] Early versions of the script contained references to the September 11 attacks before they were removed.[13] Warner Bros. considered shooting Superman Returns at Warner Roadshow Studios in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. After filming, this could have been used as an attraction for the adjoining Warner Bros. Movie World theme park, but the idea was scrapped for being too expensive.[22] Set construction started in January 2005 at Fox Studios Australia for the film's 60 setpieces, while the start date was pushed back for two weeks. In an attempt to avoid public attention, Superman Returns carried the fake working title of Red Sun during filming.[8][23] Starting in late March 2005, principal photography lasted until November.[24] Filming of Superman Returns in New South Wales constituted hiring thousands of local workers, generating over $100 million into the local economy. 80% of filming took place at Fox Studios Australia, occupying all nine sound stages.[25] Scenes set in Smallville were shot at Tamworth,[26] while the Australian Museum doubled for the Metropolis Museum of Natural History.[27] Gallery 03 BusShelter.jpg Videos Video:Superman Returns Trailer 1|Trailer External links *Superman Returns offical website *Superman Retruns IMDB 5 Category: Superman Returns Category: Featured Articles